STRENGTH THROUGH DIVERSITY

The next decade will be a transformational one for Advent, as we recruit and develop a new, diverse generation of talent, for a new world of work. This is essential for three reasons. Firstly, we passionately believe that greater diversity will further strengthen our open, inclusive culture. Secondly, diverse teams ask better questions and therefore help us make better investment decisions. Lastly, it is the right thing to do.
We are making positive change globally across Advent’s offices, within our portfolio companies and in the communities in which we operate. At the portfolio level, we are working alongside management to drive initiatives to enhance diversity in our investee companies, as recently demonstrated through our collaboration with Harvard Business School on the Advent Leadership Academy, which aims to provide high-potential diverse leaders at our portfolio companies with the knowledge and skills to accelerate their professional development. In our communities we are working with organizations that are directly involved in helping to improve cohesion and support traditionally marginalized groups.

OUR DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION MISSION

We are committed to advocating and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within Advent, our boards, our portfolio companies and our advisors. We believe success means equality of opportunity for all of our people, thus creating an inclusive environment that values diversity of background, experience, ideas and opinions. Enhancing diversity efforts across all underrepresented groups supports our most important asset, our employees, and, we believe, makes us more competitive and better investors.

In our own words

“The Investment Committee routinely ask the Associates for their view first. It’s daunting, but also a real measure of respect for the more junior members of the team.”


JADE NGUYEN

Senior Associate New York


Joined
August 2020

Past experience
Goldman Sachs – TMT

Education
BS, Business Administration, UC Berkeley
Advent private equity Associate, Edward Nwachuku

Why I joined Advent
During the recruitment process, Advent stood out based on its people and culture. There was a clear emphasis on teamwork, not only internally within the office but also with the management teams/founders they partner with. I also felt like I was able to connect with the team on a personal level – the more people I met, the more excited I felt about the opportunity.

My experience so far:
I constantly feel like I’m stretching and learning something new. I was surprised by how much exposure and responsibility that you get as an associate. Not only that, but the team is also hyper-focused on junior team development – senior team members schedule regular check-ins and are consistently seeking feedback. I’ve also gained so much from just participating in the internal trainings offered by Advent – everything from topics like executive communication to unconscious bias to modeling.

The Advent culture:
Advent has a consensus driven culture. Senior deal team members consistently seek input from associates, whether it be during informal check-ins or during Investment Committee. It’s intimidating at first, but forces you to take ownership of your opinion and voice it.

Philanthropy:
As someone who cares about being able to give back to the community, I was ecstatic to find that Advent is dedicated to philanthropy. Each geographic office has its own committee and there is also a broader North American committee. Since joining Advent, I’ve been able to help plan Philanthropy events with three separate Bay Area non-profits. Our team was even able to spearhead the creation of an internship program with SEO for high school students with participation from a handful of other funds – this wouldn’t have been possible without the Advent network and the dedication of its team members!

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“DEI is important because teams perform significantly better when you have a diverse team.”


JULIANA ZAPATA

Vice President Bogotá


Joined
2015 and then again in 2020

Past experience
Terranum – Finance

Education
MBA, MIT Sloan School of Management
Advent private equity Vice President, Juliana Zapata

Initial experiences
I joined Advent as a graduate trainee at 23. It was my first full time work experience and things were pretty challenging and fluid from the start but every day I learnt from people with a whole range of experiences working across different companies and sectors. During my early years I was seconded to two portfolio companies, which gave me massive insight operationally and the opportunity to interact with senior leaders in Columbian business at a young age.

Feeling part of a global team
Culturally, the firm has very good mechanisms for bringing together the whole global team. I went to Boston for two weeks when I joined and have attended a series of worldwide meetings, offsites and team fundraising events. It feels like you’re able to build relationships across the world that go beyond the purely professional. In Colombia, the sense of togetherness is even stronger because the office is small and the senior team put a lot of effort into building a collegiate working environment. This has continued during lockdown with lots of Zoom sessions covering everything from yoga to Bingo.

How has the approach to DEI changed since you’ve been at the firm?
Obviously it can be over-whelming when you see mostly men – but I’ve never felt like I was treated
differently. Senior leaders always encouraged the junior members to speak up and participate in the conversations.

When I left in 2018 there was not much in place, but when I re-joined, I was amazed by what had been done. There is still a lot to do but it’s a real focus of the firm and people at all levels of the firm discuss it now. In Lat-Am we have very
specific objectives, organising unconscious bias training, feedback, speakers and mentoring. Have also been speaking to senior women across the firm to get their input.

DEI in Latin America
Advent has a good culture but when you’re a minority it can be over-whelming. Not only thinking about women but other minorities that may not have felt like they have a voice within the firm. D&I is important because teams perform significantly better when you have a diverse team.

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“During my first week at the firm, one of the Managing Partner asked my opinion on the project we were working on – it’s that kind of place.”


ZINAB BERCHEQ

Assistant Director London


Joined
2018

Past experience
Citigroup – Industrial

Education
MSc, Finance and Strategy, Sciences Po
Advent private equity Associate, Zinab Bercheq

Why I joined Advent
I come from Morocco so was a bit outside traditional finance markets. When I got my first finance job in London, I always knew that my end goal would be private equity. I liked the idea of informed risk taking. On the advisory side I got exposure to a lot of the PE firms and Advent always had a strong reputation for excellence amongst peers, particularly for the importance it attached to interrogating the business and market fundamentals.

What I have gained from the Women’s Inclusion Network (‘WIN’) Program
I’ve benefitted from presentations on things like executive presence and communication skills as well as talks from more senior women about what it’s like to progress within the industry. Just as importantly, there’s a good informal network of women in the firm who get together on a pretty regular basis. I’ve also been impressed by the benefits package and the way it’s communicated. It feels like everything possible is put in place to enable both women and men to have a family when the time is right – without it prejudicing career advancement.

My experience so far
It’s a big change in working environment from investment banking. You get to know people much more closely. There’s a massive amount of exposure to different workstreams/topics that you are expected to take ownership of and you really have to own the answer – the culture is all about rigorous truth seeking.

The Advent culture
The most junior person on a team might be exposed to details that are really important to the success of the whole project so there is a commercial expectation that you voice up. I quickly realised that I had to take ownership of my opinion and voice it. During my first week at the firm, one of the Managing Partner asked my opinion on the project we were working on – it’s that kind of place.

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The transformation is organized and measured around three central pillars that are each under-pinned by our unique culture:

 

 

 

 

OVERSIGHT

This journey towards greater diversity and inclusion is overseen by a firmwide DEI Committee and regional sub-committees that draw from a broad spectrum of leadership.

 

ADVENT’S GLOBAL DEI COMMITTEE


Johanna Barr Managing Director and Global Head of Limited Partner Services London
Ariel Blumenkranc Managing Director Boston
Nicolas Chavanne Managing Director London
Katelyn Craine HR Manager Boston
Tricia Glynn Managing Partner Boston
Yusef M. Kassim Managing Director New York
Heather Miner Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director New York
Pankaj Patwari Managing Director Mumbai
Charlotte Schodowski Associate Boston
Ranjan Sen Managing Partner Frankfurt

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